A variety of consumer, scientific, and industrial products incorporate various metals in a variety of forms and shapes. Coating such metal surfaces with solvent based coating can be problematic due to environmental issues stemming from evaporation of the volatile solvent. Also, such coatings can require thermal curing, resulting in the need for curing ovens, and the associated energy expenditure to operate them. Such consumer, scientific, and industrial products may have functions which require the product to be hard, slippery (i.e., possessing a low coefficient of friction), or both hard and slippery. Products which are hard and abrasion resistant, with good slip properties are desired, as this may increase the products lifetime. By way of example, such products may include hydraulic rods and hydraulic cylinders, pneumatic struts, shock absorbers, ball joints, axels, and wheel bearings and couplers. “Hard chrome” coatings have been used to impart hardness to products; however separate coatings are needed to impart good slip properties to these hard coated products, for example TEFLON® type coatings. Furthermore, chrome coating processes are inherently not environmentally friendly, as they have both environmental and health issues.